Applicant claims priority under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 of Canadian Application No. 2,290,872 filed Dec. 1, 1999. Applicant also claims priority under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7365 of PCT/CA00/01424 filed Nov. 30, 2000. The international application under PCT article 21(2) was not published in English.
The present invention relates to an office accessory hereafter called  less than  less than sheet folding device greater than  greater than , which is designed and adapted to facilitate accurate folding of sheets of paper of standard height and width for insertion into commercial envelopes of corresponding dimensions.
It is known that many standardized formats exist for sheets of paper:
letter format (8.5 inchesxc3x9711 inches)
legal format (8.5. inchesxc3x9714 inches)
xe2x80x9chorizontal billxe2x80x9d format (11 inchesxc3x978.5 inches)
A4 format (21 cmxc3x9729.7 cm).
The first three formats listed here above are those commonly used in North America. The fourth one is mainly used in Europe.
There also exists standardized envelope formats to receive these sheets after they have been folded in two (administrative format), three (letter format) or four along the same direction (legal format) or in four along both directions (horizontal bill format). These envelopes (10xe2x80x3 commercial format) may be provided with a window.
Folding of the sheets in order to insert them into the envelopes is compulsory in all cases and requests a certain dexterity. Indeed, if the folding lines are irregularly spaced out, the sheets may not enter into the envelopes or the address printed on them may not be centred in the window provided for this purpose.
There presently are mechanical office equipments for use to fold sheets of letter format only, and to insert them into envelopes. These equipments are efficient but costly and are therefore profitable only when the volume of sheets to be folded and be inserted into envelopes is large.
To the Applicant""s knowledge, there is no simple and inexpensive equipment that may be used as an office accessory to facilitate the work of any person having to fold sheets on a regular basis.
The object of the present invention is to provide a sheet folding device of extremely simple structure and easy manipulation which answers the need evoked herein above.
More precisely, the object of the invention is a sheet folding device that is designed and adapted to facilitate exact and rapid folding of sheets of paper of standard height and width in order to insert them into commercial envelopes of corresponding dimensions.
The sheet folding device according to the invention is characterized in that it comprises:
a planar base made of rigid material, said base having a width substantially equal to the standard width of the sheets to be folded and a height at least equal to two thirds of the standard height of said sheets, and presenting a lower edge and two lateral edges;
at least one limit stop is integral to the base, said at least one limit stop extending at the level of the lower edge of the base and projecting slightly above said lower edge in order to serve as a support to the lower edges of the sheets to be folded; and
folding guides integral to the base, said guides shaped and placed in such a way as to permits to pre-form folding lines in order to subsequently fold the sheet(s) and insert them into commercial envelopes.
This sheet-folding device is characterized in that:
the folding guides are at least three in number, the first one of the guides extending transversely along the entire width of the base at a distance from the lower edge substantially equal to a third of the standard height of said sheets, the second one of said guides extending transversely along the entire width of the base at a distance from the lower edge substantially equal to two thirds of the standard height of said sheets, the third one of said guides extending transversely along the entire width of the base at a distance from the lower edge substantially corresponding to half of the standard height of said sheets to be folded; and
said folding guides have a triangular cross-section to allow a user having positioned one or more sheets of paper to be folded on the base and resting on the limit stop(s), to press with his/her fingers upon the sheet(s) along the guides in order to define and manually pre-form said required folding lines for folding purpose.
It will be understood that the first and second guides allow the folding of sheets into three parts. The third guide allows the folding of sheets in two parts according to the administrative format.
Two other guides may also be provided for the sheet folding device destined to be used with legal format sheets or horizontal bills.
As it may be appreciated, the sheet folding device according to the invention is of very simple structure. It is economical and easy to use. It does not include any moveable elements and does not need to be connected to an energy source. It is small in size and easy to store. It may be easily sold and used as an office accessory in order to facilitate secretarial work.
The invention and its advantages will be better understood upon reading the following detailed description of several preferred embodiments thereof, made with reference to the accompanying drawings.